Who is Thomas Cromwell in the novel, Wolf Hall?

Thomas Cromwell is the main character of Hilary Mantel’s historical novel, “Wolf Hall”. It is through Cromwell’s eyes that the events relating to King Henry VIII’s determination to marry Anne Boleyn at all costs can be seen. Physically abused as a child and teenager, Cromwell ran away from Putney, England, to Europe, to fight as a mercenary in the French army, and later train in Italian banking before returning to England to work in law, where he became the right-hand man of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. Thomas Cromwell is just over 40 for the duration of the novel, is starting to gain weight, and loses his wife and two daughters to the sweating sickness plague early in the novel. It is a loss which will haunt him deeply. He remains steadfastly loyal to Wolsey during Wolsey’s downfall, and earns the respect and ear of the king. Cromwell, motivated by ambition, moves up through the ranks to the king’s inner circle, where he helps the king to establish himself as head of the Church in England, and marry Anne Boleyn. Cromwell not only becomes a member of the inner circle of the king, but gains immense power, prestige, and wealth for himself and his remaining family in the process.